Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
by startreatment
Summary: A short fanfic based on the album by the Arctic Monkeys. Kind of imagining the album as an actual place where people can go to escape


'Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. Mark, speaking. Please tell me how may I direct your call?'

'Oh, he's cute!' Chelsea nudged my ribs and nodded towards the hotel receptionist, 'and you are a sucker for an English accent.'

I rolled my eyes and pushed her away. Mark hung up the phone and smiled towards us. You know, he _was_ kind of cute; wearing a full white pinstriped suit, hair down to there, impressive moustache...

'Hi there. How may I help you?'

'Hi, we're just checking in for a reservation for Rachel McCann.'

'Sure,' he smiled again, and typed away at his keyboard.

Chelsea hummed to herself as she looked around the lobby and peered into the entrance of the deserted casino.

'God, it's so retro. You'd think a hotel on the moon wouldn't be so…seventies. And it got four stars out of five?'

'I dunno,' I took a quick look around, and yes, the décor was very dated. The lobby walls and fixtures were mostly earthy colours, with gold accents in various florals and fleur-de-lis shapes. The carpet was a beige colour and worn in spots in front of the desk, 'I kinda like it. It's very charming and sorta…non-threatening?'

It definitely wasn't a place Chelsea and I were used to staying, and that is exactly why I chose it. No one I knew would stay here.

'Here's your key, madam. Room 521.' Mark handed me the room key, flashing one more smile before we headed to the elevator.

Chelsea threw herself onto the crimson duvet of the four poster bed, 'Look, I'm not questioning your way of doing things, but do you really think that spending a few days in some crummy hotel off-world is going to help you move on?' she gestured to the room, the walls deep red with white accents, and blue striped curtains drawn either side of the window, 'here ain't no place for dolls like you and me.'

'I just…I just needed to be as far away as possible.'

She gave me a pitied smile.

'Okay, well the rocket gave me a migraine so I'm gonna lie down for a bit, but then we should go down and check out a show or something.'

I nodded as she kicked off her shoes and settled herself. 'I might go have a wonder around. Message me when you're feeling better and I'll let you know where I am.'

Before long I found myself in the hotel's lounge bar. There was a handful of people flittering about, but it was mostly dead. At the back of the lounge was a small stage scattered with abandoned musical equipment, except for a lone man sitting in front of a baby grand piano, plinking away at the keys and singing softly into a mic. I ordered a rum and coke at the neon bar and then sat myself down in a corner at a small table with two comfortable armchairs. Outside the window, the planet Earth was distant and blue.

'So, when you gaze at planet earth from outer space, does it wipe that stupid look off of your face?'

I turned to the voice, 'I beg your pardon?'

'Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else.'

It was the man from the piano. Dressed in a black suit with a mustard coloured shirt, hair slicked back and a drink (probably scotch, neat) in his hand. He must have been in his early thirties. I hadn't even noticed the music had stopped.

'Is that just how you greet people?'

'Not usually,' he sat in the chair opposite mine, gazing out the window, 'I told you, I thought you were someone else.'

'Umm, okay sure, please join me,' he disregarded the sarcasm in my voice. I then motioned to the room. 'It's pretty quiet tonight. Must be weird to play to just a handful of people?'

'I've played to quiet rooms like this before,' he shrugged and took a sip of his drink, then turned and regarded me, 'so what's your story?'

'What do you mean?'

'I saw you and your friend when you arrived. You're…much younger than our usual patrons, and there are far more interesting hotels on this rock. There's a hotel down the street that's been getting a lot of press lately. They have re-decorated it all. They've changed all the lights and the bar's down the side. Very modern. So why here?' his eyes squinted slightly as he looked me over, '...You hiding from something?'

I cocked an eyebrow at his brazenness, 'Are you?'

He shrugged again, 'Maybe. It's a good place to hide from people.'

'Like maybe that person you thought I was?'

He raised his eyebrows slightly and stared.

I shifted uncomfortably. 'I, umm, broke up with my fiancé a few months ago.'

'What happened?' his gaze boring into me.

My turn to take a long drink. I didn't know why I was telling a complete stranger this, but I felt compelled. 'Long story short, I fell for someone else, so I broke off the engagement. But not before…'

A look of realisation came over his face, and he sat back in his chair, 'I see. Well, when true love takes a grip it leaves you without a choice.'

'But it was a choice, and it was a bad choice. And the other guy didn't want me in the end anyway. So now I'm living with the guilt of what I did, and the choices I made,' I finished my drink, and stared into the empty glass, 'I'm just a bad girl trying to be good.'

'There's no limit to the length of the dickheads we can be,' he declared nonchalantly and downed the rest of his drink, 'all you can do is learn your lesson, and never repeat the same mistakes.'

'Yeah, I guess…what happened with you and your person?'

'There are things that I just cannot explain to you,' he stood up, fixing his jacket, 'But, forgive yourself and move forward. What's the point in living in the mistakes of the past that you can't fix?'

I laughed to myself and smiled up at him, 'I must admit, you gave me something momentarily in which I could believe.'

'Well its either you move forward, or you can stay here and become a lounge fixture like the rest of us wayward souls,' he fixed his cuffs, and nodded at me, 'I better get back to it, they're paying me to play that piano after all. I need to spend less time stood around in bars, waffling on to strangers'

He gave me a small wave, and then, hands in his pockets, he returned to the piano.

'There you are!' Chelsea waltz into the lounge, phone in hand, 'you didn't reply to my message.'

I checked my phone, 'I didn't get one.'

She threw up her hands, 'bloody Lunar surface signal!...Anyway, let's go get a sangria.'

I stood and followed her to the bar, throwing a look at the piano man. He nodded to me as he sang:

'_Oh, the dawn won't stop weighing a tonne. I've done some things that I shouldn't have done. But I haven't stopped loving you once…_'


End file.
